COLOMBO, Oct 27, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- De-mining in Sri Lanka's entire Eastern Province has been completed and the process is being accelerated in the north, a senior government minister said on Tuesday.
Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Risath Bathiyutheen told reporters that 118 villages in the Northern Province has also been demined and the demining process in other parts of the province is being accelerated.
Bathiyutheen said 1,000 Army personnel are engaged in the de- mining process in the Northern Province. Another batch of 1,000 is under training and they will join the process soon.
"Some INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organizations) engaged in de-mining activities were replaced by the Army due to their delay in de-mining certain areas," Bathiyutheen said.
According to the minister, of the 280,000 civilians displaced by the final battles between the government troops and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), about 90,000 have been resettled to their original homes.
Bathiyutheen said the government has renovated health institutions, schools, bridges and other facilities before resettling the displaced civilians.
"All the paddy fields abandoned two decades ago in the Northern Province are being readied for cultivation. The government is also providing dry rations for six months to those who have been resettled until they reap their next harvest," Bathiyutheen said.
The LTTE had been fighting for more than two decades to carve out an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east before it was crushed by the troops in May.
The government troops recaptured the Eastern Province in July 2007 and then launched its military offensive in the north.
